Abstract

A number of recent reviews have pointed to the apparent frequency with which non-penetrating injuries to the chest are complicated by lesions of the heart.1-6 In most of the earlier reports the injury to the heart was striking, immediate, and either fatal or incapacitating. In others severe cardiac failure, conduction disturbances or rupture of the myocardium occurred after a relatively silent period.2 The subject has become increasingly important from the standpoint of industrial5, 8, 9, 10, 11 and military3, 4, 12-15 compensation. The use of early and repeated electrocardiographic examinations has been stressed as being necessary in the presence of